Holy Martyr Paramonos and Those With Him in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

These Saints lived during the reign of Decius the emperor and the ruler Aquilinus. The reason for their faith in Christ and their end is the following: In Basra near the Tigris River, in an area specifically called Iero, there was a great and abundant spring of hot waters, which miraculously cured diseases. Here, therefore, the ruler of the East, Aquilinus, arrived for the healing of his body, having ordered that the prisoners from Nicomedia and the martyrs who had been arrested for their faith in Christ should follow him. When he went to the temple of Isis and offered his vile sacrifices, he commanded the Saints to also sacrifice to the idols and to worship them. Since, of course, they refused to do so, he gave orders for them all to be killed with swords. Thus, those who were brave became wondrous martyrs of Christ, the Almighty King, totaling three hundred seventy in number.

Seeing them, the Holy Paramonos cried out with a loud voice and said: “I see great impiety. For this unclean man is slaughtering so many righteous and foreigners in an unreasonable manner.” When the ruler heard this, he was seized with rage and immediately ordered him to be killed. The ruler's envoys, after arresting Paramonos, who did not know the order and continued to walk in the place where he was, did not want one to commit the murder, but all of them together. So they ran to shed innocent blood, in front of the eyes of the ruler, with their own hands and with their own weapons. Some then struck him with spears, others with pointed reeds, passing them through the tongue and the rest of the Saint's limbs, until in front of the tyrant they killed him in the place we have mentioned, and thus sent him to the heavenly tabernacles. In the same place as the holy three hundred and seventy martyrs and in the same coffins with them, the Saint was also numbered and his relics were deposited.

Prologue in Sermons: November 29

 

On Sorrowful Reflections

November 29*

(Sermon of John Chrysostom on Eternal Torment and the Kingdom of Heaven; and on Always Keeping the Day of Departure in Mind)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

The word of God sometimes commands us to have sorrowful thoughts. For example, the Lord says: "Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning" (Joel 2:12). Or the wise son of Sirach teaches: "In all your works remember your last end" (Sirach 7:40). Why then does the word of God command us to have such sorrowful thoughts: sometimes about sins, sometimes about death? Brethren, it commands us so that through these sorrowful thoughts in this life we may be saved from eternal sorrows in the life to come. We will not reveal this truth to you ourselves, but let the ecumenical teacher, Saint John Chrysostom, reveal it and prove it to you. Listen to him.

The First Ecumenical Synod and Its Significance

At the Synodal Divine Liturgy celebrated on Sunday, June 1st 2025, at the Sacred Metropolitan Church of Athens, presided over by His Beatitude Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, Hieronymos, for the 1700th anniversary of the convening of the First Ecumenical Synod in 325 in Nicaea of Bithynia, His Eminence Metropolitan of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou, Hierotheos, Vice-President of the Permanent Holy Synod, spoke on the topic: “The First Ecumenical Synod and Its Significance.”

The Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Synod, during this Easter period, leading up to the feast of Pentecost, is wonderful, and rightly the Sacred Synod of the Church of Greece determined to celebrate it magnificently. This is done with a Synodal Divine Liturgy, with hymns and speeches meet for God, with a convocation of the Hierarchy of the Church of Greece and with events befitting this great feast, with the completion of 1,700 years since the convocation of the First Ecumenical Synod, which was called “Holy” and “Great” and became the model for the other Ecumenical Synods that followed, in which we, the Bishops, gave a confession that we will abide by their decisions.

This brief eucharistic homily, by decision of the Sacred Synod, also falls within this framework.

Holy Martyr Stephen the New in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Venerable Stephen was born in Constantinople in 715, to pious parents, John and Anna. He lived in asceticism from his youth in the Monastery of Saint Auxentios, which was in Bithynia. The monastery was located on a high place, called the Mountain of Saint Auxentios. He became abbot of the monks there. The fame of his spiritual struggles was heard everywhere and the fragrance of his virtues led many to him. He died a martyr’s death due to the veneration of the holy icons, during the reign of Constantine, called Copronymos. Before his martyric end, Copronymos sentenced him to eleven months in chains and prison. Then he ordered that they drag him along the ground and stone him like the Protomartyr Stephen, hence he was called Stephen the New. They then beat him with a club on the brain and after crushing his head, he gave up his spirit in 767.

Prologue in Sermons: November 28

 

The More a Person is Slandered by Slanderers, the More the Lord Glorifies Them

November 28*

(From the Life of Saint John Chrysostom)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

When our enemies and slanderers begin to slander us among others, spreading bad rumors about us and vilifying our name, we usually become despondent, fainthearted, and say, "Now I'm lost, now everyone will consider me a bad person and will despise me." But in reasoning like this, we are mistaken. When we hear negative words spoken about ourselves, we must always remember that there is an all-seeing and just God above us, that He will not allow our enemies to triumph over us, and that the evil they do to us is always ready to turn and will turn to our good.